Social Venture Group's blog

July 24, 2009

Literacy in China

I was doing some research on literacy
in China this week and came across a great report by UNESCO. The history and
progress of China’s literacy is an important part of the country’s overall
educational health, so I wanted to highlight some of the information I’ve
gleaned in my reading.

Trying to find a consensus on the
growth of literacy in China is like trying to find a grey rock in a quarry of
gravel. The one agreement is that literacy is growing, but sorting through the
data for the most reliable information proves challenging. For the first fifty
years of the 20th century, illiteracy (不识字或识字很少) in China remained at
a steady 85-80% of the population. Thereafter, the figures start to vary. Below
is a broad view of literacy rates:

By 1959
rates among youths and adults (aged 12-40) fell from 80% to 43%. By 1979 this figure had dropped to 30%, by
1982 to 25%, and by 1988 to 20%. (Wang, 1985; Wang and Li, 1990) China’s national censuses of 1964, 1982, 1990,
and 2000 reported slightly different declines of illiterates as a percentage of
the total population (which increased during those years from approximately
694,580,000 to 1,265,830,000) from 33.58%, to 22.81%, to 15.88% to 6.72%.(Li,
1992; Meng, 2002)

According to
2000 census data, 86.992 million adults in China were illiterate, 20.55 million
of whom were between the ages of 15 and 50.
Three quarters of these illiterates lived in rural areas. Seven
provinces and regions had the highest illiteracy rates, including Tibet,
Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia (Figures 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, and 6 and Tables 1, 2, 5 and 6) Tibet’s illiteracy rate was 37%-38%, the
illiteracy rate of Yunnan, Guizhou, Gansu and Qinghai varied from 10%-15%, and
the illiteracy rate of Inner Mongolia was 7%-8%.

History’s
role

History shows that Chinese have long
held literacy as an important “moral template for cultural identity and
modernity.” Wisdom and education have been highly regarded in China, and literacy
campaigns appeared throughout the 20th century and continue today. Despite
the importance of education, literacy has not been easy to achieve. During the
Cultural Revolution when secondary schools were closed between 1966 and 1968,
the number of illiterate citizens rose, and the population boom further
destabilized learning.

Prior to 1978, adult education had
always taken precedence over children. The report says, “Adult literacy was
given first priority in literacy campaigns designed to ‘sweep away illiteracy’
(saochu wenmang). Because 80% of adults
were illiterate they were targeted as crucial for securing new China’s economic
security.” It may sound cliché, but reading was (and continues to be) power,
and leaders knew that the literate could have considerable influence.

In 1950 the government set recognition
of 1000 characters as the standard for literacy and 300 for illiteracy. A
reading primer for peasants was distributed in 1951 to rural people. Pinyin was
developed (there was even talk of doing away with characters), Putonghua became
the standard for the Chinese language, and characters were simplified in an
effort to make the written language more accessible to the public and to unify
the country under a singular language system.

When the primary school curriculum was
standardized in 1978, the focus shifted to a more consistent national education
program for the younger members of society, and adult education began to decline
(of course, it was no longer as necessary since the newest generations picked
up the language quicker). Literacy among children increased; however, the years
before had seen a decline in literacy despite the campaigns to eradicate it.
The trend changed however during the ‘80s and ‘90s when the literacy rate rose
considerably and China reported a 15.9% illiteracy rate (1990). UNESCO reports
that the majority of those who remained illiterate were (unsurprisingly) women.

What
is the standard of literacy?

In China, literacy is measured by the number
of characters recognized. For urban dwellers, the current literacy standard is
2000 characters while rural dwellers need know only 1500. Minority languages
and dialects do not generally factor in. Over the years other criteria has
factored into what counts as literacy including ability to write reports, read
popular publications, etc.

The actual statistics published by
China have made critics outside of the country skeptical. With the size of the
population, condition of rural education, and other factors to consider, it
does not seem possible that the literacy rate in 1990 could be as low as 15.9%.
The age range represented in literacy censuses has not been consistent or clear
over time, which makes statistics hard to reconcile when combined with the
shifting literacy standard.

What
are the barriers to literacy?

Rural education. China has made
great inroads to better rural education—lessening the cost of primary and
secondary education, sending or subsidizing books, etc; however, there is still
a significant gap between the rural and urban education systems.

Gender disparity: male children
are still chosen to receive more education than female children, especially in
rural settings.

Population: with over one
billion citizens, educating the huge population is decidedly challenging.
Factor in the minority culture and tradition of minority peoples, the difficult
to monitor rural populations, and the millions of migrant children living in
cities with barebones education and you can understand how difficult educating
the country is.

Disabled students: “China’s reported
disabled population of 60-70 million represents approximately 5% of the overall
population, 1/3 of which resides in rural areas.”Disabled
students are not given the same educational rights as other children, and
schools that do specialize in caring for the disabled and those with learning
disabilities are expensive and are almost nonexistent outside urban areas.

Solutions

UNESCO proposes several
recommendations:

Establish a
reporting system for literacy work within the Ministry of Education;

Collect
better data, including better monitoring of new illiterates, those becoming
illiterates again, or migrant illiterates linked to the consolidation and
improvement of assessment and
evaluation in literacy work.

Continue
vigilance in UPE for the prevention of new illiterates and insuring
post-literacy education

Sustain a
primary focus on impoverished areas, national minority area and women’s
literacy work

Better
coordinate literacy education at all levels of government with the work of
“social forces” (NGOs, media, military)

Diversify
funding for literacy to include local village funds, funds from enterprises and
state agencies, and donations; and

Improve
research on literacy education, including participatory research in
impoverished, minority regions.

With the government’s (and the
people’s) commitment to education, China can continue to make great strides in
eradicating literacy. Of course, this cannot simply mean installing more
teachers in rural areas or subsidizing education for females. To achieve
literacy, China must also incorporate the culture and traditions of minority
and the way of life of rural peoples. The goal of literacy must be to give
citizens more freedom and options which encourage heritage while also looking
towards a fuller future.